diemai

@ MattDean I have made a few flat-bodied jerkbait models in different sizes , I always minored or increased the initial design sketch on a photocopier , also calculated the new width of body accordingly . But I must say , that the action might significantly change for bad ,..... had this happen , when decreasing 4" to 5 1/2" baits to 3" or even little less . I think , this was because I simply could not place enough ballast , as the small lures turned out to be not sufficiently buoyant anymore(even though I used lighter wood than I took for the bigger ones) . Don't think , that this would also happen that way , when increasing a 5" to 7" or similar sizing , smaller jerks are more finacky after my experience . Another way to fool around with is to leave the general outline in scale , but alter the width of a lure , I had read about this in the German issue of a Swedish origined crankbait making book . The author described such in terms of changing lure sizes , when mounting different lips to the baits(lips of different size , material and weight)and also for different purposes of the lures(a deep diver furnished a little narrower in cross-section for less buoancy , etc.....) . good luck , diemai:yay:

@ MackDSM Hi , welcome at TU ! I am a metal worker , too(operating CNC grinding machinery , but did an apprenticeship as a tool maker 30 years ago) ! At my works I am lucky to get aluminium pieces for free on the scrabyard , so I never bothered about making molds out of softer grade steel . You'd really need industrial grade machinery for it ,.......I made the cavities on my aluminium molds with a "Dremel" and various router bits , after having them pre-drilled on a drill press , and this really takes the "Dremel" to its limits , ......I had one spoilt , as the router bit into the metal and the center drive axis deformed to run off center afterwards . But if you've got the right machinery , softer steel won't make a big difference to aluminium , I suppose ,...... would only take longer production time , as the machinery feeds can't be chosen as fast as with cutting aluminium . Are you gonna utilize CNC programmed machines or manually operated ones ? One French guy in here once displayed beautiful aluminium molds for plastic lures , that he obviously did on a CNC router . And I know of one or two guys at my work , that did molds for saltwater pirks that way as well(I don't have access to a CNC router there , ......no router at all !) When making your steel molds , make sure to get all surfaces as smooth as possible , probably even polished , so they would not be as vulnerable to rust , maybe also "brown"(sorry , don't know the exact English for it , it is an electric/chemical process to get the steel's surface to a brownish/black color)the steel , this also helps a little against rust , ........but mainly always oil them well and wrap in plastic , when stored ,....always SEPARATE all parts , so they won't bind together with rust ! But I guess , that on a long run it is easier to face the problems of finding a source for aluminium material , even if having to drive a longer way , .....you could google for sources and/or try looking for scrabyards in your vicinity(yellow pages??) , sometimes one can be lucky in such places as well . good luck , diemai:yay:

@ Vodkaman Great , that you could still recognize something...........! It is the doubled cord tail giving these spoons their snake-like appearance , off course also the pronounced cupping of the metal(you can view better pictures of that "Mouse Spoon" in my gallery uploads) . This model has been amongst the most difficult , that I've ever made , .....it does not forgive bigger inaccuracy in its cupping grade , also it can't be made of thicker sheet , .....1,0 mm is the best choice ,....... 1,3 mm about the maximum . If getting too thick (thus too heavy) , the circular force of the pronounced swings of the body would accelerate that higher weight too much and the spoon would be more likely to overturn , even at slower retrieve speeds . It is the only spoon shape , that I came across so far , that is able to toss such an attachement without loosing its appeal ,..... usually many spoon models are pretty much vulnerable to such ,..........one small leaf fouling the hook and they won't wiggle well no more . Even thought about rigging counterrotating props on either end of that spoon now...........! PS : Forgot to mention in my previous post , that the "twin clickers" that I've now found out to work well on the INSIDE cupping , are equipped with SOLID metal beads ,.... hollow beads did not work at all , as I stated in the very first post of this thread . greetz:yay: , Dieter

@ DSV I did not notice any discompability of such floorboard ,- or boat laquer with my modelmaking enamels or spraypaints , but some yellowing may occur after some seasons . And as Lincoya said ,.,..... don't store laquer-painted lures together with plastics , only epoxy finishes hold up against the softeners containing in these . good luck , diemai:yay:

Just made some more bath tub trials with these spoons an hour ago , and I am quite surprised that a "twin clicker" INSIDE of the cupping worked pretty well ! I had thought , that it would let the spoon flip over easier , but it does not at all , even seems to stabilize its running .........at higher paces it hardly turns around as well . The clicking noise generated this way is still allright , though it seems to be a little lower as generated with an OUTSIDE cupping "twin clicker" . Also rigged one spoon with a "single clicker" INSIDE of cupping , that one worked either ,....... but why mounting such , if a twin clicker also works , even at double frequency ? Anyway , guess , that I have found a suiting "clicker" rig now , still wanna try one out leading crosswise through the spoon with one solid bead on either end , OUTSIDE and INSIDE cupping alike . After I hopefully could polish and decorate the spoons and finally throw them ! I also was fooling around with the video function of my little cheap camera and afterwards uploading that video on my "picasa" and afterwards "youtube"(a complete computer dummy slowly steps out of the shadows) . It is of very , very poor quality , my bathroom is not that much illuminated and me stupid also had failed to open up the curtains ! Anyway , probably this is how the fish would also see my "Clicking Mouse Spoon" after sundown , .......sorry , its my first video , guess , that I could only get better ! greetz , diemai:yay:

@ Vodkaman Thanks for that hint , Dave , very clever:yes: , ..... gotta give it a try one day ! greetz:yay: , Dieter

@ rofish Thought about a ready-made rattles as well , ........I have some small plastic jig rattles , that surely could be attached with some wire , but their sound is not as loud ! And the crankbait rattles of brass tubing , that I sometimes set into wooden baits , are not waterproof , ........I had to try soldering their lids , which is quite finacky in my point of view , since if one side would be done , heating up the opposite side to apply solder would cause the solder on the first lid to flow off again , I guess ? greetz , Dieter:yay:

@ bassrecord All of these points about activities of law enforcement and wildlife enforcement do sound very strange to me , rather not like taking place in a democratic system somehow ! Your statements rather remind me to a case of someone trying to cheat for insurance money by burning down his own barn or mutilating himself or similar !!!!!! In my point of view it is more than questionable to trigger such general suspicions against everybody claiming a record fish . The only intention I can see behind this is the big sponsor money paid out for TRUE record catches , but still it is very , very questionable . But probably there must have been many cases of cheating for records as well , to make the authorities do so ? That "smell" test by the IGFA might turn out to be questionable as well in some specific cases , .........off course it this possible to boat a big fish with a line or leader , that is much too weak for the purpose , one can ocassionally read about accidental catches like that. Certainly only anglers with greatest experience , skills , patience , quality gear and a real big share of luck can achieve that , but I remember to have read about cases of fish landed on only 20% to 25% or even less pounds test line compared to the fish's own weight . I only know ,.... if I had to face all of these troubles , I probably would not claim for any record , even if in my believe everything went along accordingly to ALL restrictions , ......it must be quite disgusting to be treated like a criminal , just because you've been lucky to hook the fish of a lifetime . But would it be easy to probably let hundreds of thousands of bucks swim away ? I am happy , we do not have such over here , ........catch a record fish , weigh it officially and find two whitnesses and you're on the list in those particular angling magazines , having the chance to win a quality rod and/or reel every issue and some tackle worth a few hundred € at the end of the season , and that's it ! So not much temptation to cheat , except maybe only people that probably need such for their own ego or if suffering from a lack of self confidence:? . But great info anyway ,...... it's nice and interesting to look "over the fence" sometimes ,..... thanks a lot , John:wink: . greetz , Dieter:yay:

@ DSV As I started out making wooden lures , I also used a few layers of laquer as a topcoat on them . It was the kinda stuff to obtain from toolmarts to paint over floorboards and wooden boats . Later a friend introduced Etex to me and presently I ended up with epoxy , 2k auto cleargloss and just recently modelling dope , wich all of are more or less harder and more durable as the laquer used in the beginning . greetz , diemai:yay:

@ pirkfan As I hear , many Americans and also Australians complaining about their exploding carp populations , I don't understand , why not utilizing these as a food source , even for export only ,....... this is the purpose , that they were originally bred for in central Europe , about 700 years ago . I watched on TV , that farm fisheries are an increasing business worldwide , as our oceans are more and more emptied by industrial fishing . What people complain about in terms of carp spreading all around ,...... fast growth , good reproduction and capability to survive in many different habitats , is surely their advantage if used as a human food source . I can imagine , that it is very easy to catch carp over there in the US or also Australia , .....since they are just not as pressured by far as they are over here . The "real" carp anglers around here fish for trophies(CPR only)and carp are smart and shy , once caught and released ,.... you really need to think about some special methods and baits to fool them again . Some easily recognizeable trophy fish in certain waters have been given names by the anglers , as they were caught frequently , most likely having gained some weight again each time . But you'd be familiar to this from your local LM and SM bass in America as well , I guess . Due to the big carp's "cleverness" you could almost never catch a big carp on common baits like nightcrawler worms , maggots , sweetcorn and dough in local waters over here ,.... it's always the smaller , unexperienced fish ocassionally falling for such . Don't think , that you could get European carp cracks to minor the stock of your unwanted carp over there ,..........they dislike harming the fish and would never kill their catches , since they wanna catch'em still bigger next season again ! I guess , that your only chance to minor your carp stocks just a little bit , is to get certain groups of immigrants over there in the US , that are used to carp as a food source from their countries of origin , to fish them out ,...... but this would probably only be possible in highly populated areas , if at all ? greetz , diemai:yay:

@ bassrecord That IGFA stat about "fish needs to be caught after local regulations" is surely a big drawback for possible record claimers as you have given that example about sturgeon in the Columbia river . But in terms to keep up a nice stock of fish , that 40" to 50" rule there makes sense to me . There are very similar restrictions for pike in Ireland as well , .......guess , I read about it somewhere ,..........take only medium sized ones for kitchen , but release the small and the big ! But I guess , that they also allow to take home real big trophy fish above a certain , almost unreachable , size as well . But as you wrote , real big sponsor money is involved(did not think about that) , something that we do not know over here , ........the handful of local pro anglers doing promotions for the tackle industry can't get wealthy with it , I guess ,..... for very few of them it's just enough for a reasonable living , as they also write books and articles , make instructional videos , do schooling , etc ........ , more or less on their own behalf , I guess . Simply our tackle market is smaller and angling is not as recognized by the public , so the big money is missing , ........not neccessarely a disadvantage , I'd say ???? No wonder about the big passion for the whole affair over there in the USA . greetz:yay: , Dieter

@ bassrecord My second statement , that you have quoted(about CPR) , I had stated in terms of an entirely different meaning , though the quote fits yours as well:) . I meant , that over here in Germany fishing restrictions demand the killing of every legal sized fish caught , but many anglers probably prefer to let a trophy fish live rather than to appear in any records list ! Even if it this illegal , .....many of us don't obey these stupid restrictions anymore as we see , that our stocks are obviously going down compared to other countries , that do not have this kill policy in their restrictions or even enforce the release of any fish of certain species . And no need to apologize about your longer posts , ...these are very informative , especially for me as an European , that is not too familiar with such angling records customs . I just posted this link in here for the fun of viewing an exeptional fish , I could not imagine , that it could even rise such kinda passion on the subject ! greetz , diemai:yay:

@ bassrecord After reading all of your explanations , I don't believe , that this fish would be recognized as world record , anyway . Over here in Germany we do not have something like an official record league , anyway ,.......records acknowledged to public are most likely presented by our local angling magazines , and the rules are not as strict ,...... doesn't matter , how the fish was caught , just according to general restrictions and with rod and reel , off course . To be published it requires a foto , two whitnesses to sign up , and weighting of the catch at an authorized weighting place , which are most likely local tackleshops . Off course this way the fish claimed to be record cannot be released ,.... which would not be according to our local restrictions , anyway . So I am sure , that quite a few record fish remain unknown or at least not taken up into the records lists , since the catchers practise CPR ,..... illegal , but totally reasonable ! greetz , diemai:yay:

Thank you , guys , .......still need to do further trials , anyway:? ! @ spoopa Believe me , Jacob , I have thought about jointed spoons as well , but I guess , that it would not work the same way like on hardbaits , since spoons are not buoyant , so one important factor is missing . If you'd rig two cupped metal sheets behind one another(with simple split rings as joints) , the rear part would probably only act as a trailer or parachute and slow down or even kill all moves of the first one as well . I have once rigged three or four kinked and rather worthless foreign coins behind one another that way , and they just pulled straight through the water , whereas a single coin always evolved a certain wiggle ! One could maybe only hinge them in a certain way , so that they could not move up and down , but swing around a pivot axis leading crosswise the flat sheet to either side , so virtually similar to the connecting clutch to attach a trailer to a tractor or a clutch between train waggons . This way they could keep a cupped surface through their entire length , only change the sideward profile , which would certainly have an impact on their action . I am sometimes cracking my brains about such , but never came to a practical solution , that would be also reasonably easy to execute . @ Sagacious I am familiar to such arrangement as well , made some like this many years ago after book and catalog pictures , .........but can't even tell , how loud their generated noise is , since I never tested them in my bath tub , .......just took over the design like that ! But thanks about your hint anyway , now I am gonna dig them out of my storage boxes down the basement and check them , I am really interested to compare ! greetz , diemai:yay:

Hi , folks , I am presently working on some homemade casting spoons again , so I gave it an intial shot to try out something , that has been on my mind for quite a while now . Don't know , whether it would finally lead to a successful and functional lure design , but first trials in my bath tub turned out promising . Some of you might have seen my , by now already proven , "DinnerBell" spoons displayed in my gallery uploads quite a while ago ,.... so I have thought about utilizing it's beaded wire arm principle(generates a clicking noise on retrieve) on a different , more "tradional" spoon model . Problem is , that such spoons do not have any sharp kink in their cupping for a bead to engage to generate noise , ......so I had to alter that principle a bit . I chose my spoon design "Mouse Spoon" for it , since it performs a very pronounced side-to-side wobble , virtually turning into an almost vertical position on every sideward swing on retrieve . Yesterday I have furnished some test lures with two different beaded wire form arrangements and tried them in my bath tub for a first impression . Please check out containing pictures , surely you'll instantly dig the intended principle of those clickers . One rig I had put into the inside of the spoons cupping , the metal beads of that one are hollow and do not provide a lot of weight . I guess , that this is the reason for this one not to have generated any sound at all , ..............it could just not swing around its wire shaft to hit the spoon's inside with it's beads since the oncoming current obviously "nailed" it in place . The other rig with little larger solid beads mounted to the cupping's outside worked pretty well , but it took a while(retrieve path) to get the spoon to kick to wobble , but once it did , it went along with a quite loud "click-click-click-click" sound . I tinkered a bit with the angle of that wire form and found , that the beads have to stand as far apart as possible , ........closer together they seem to act more and more as a keel weight killing the spoons wobble quite a bit . Also bending them back,-or forward(towards the tips of the spoon) kills the action somehow . Finally I overbent the wire form ,....it now binds inbetween its bearing beads , so I had to stop my tests , ...... some more tinkering to go through during the next days ,... maybe also try a single "clicker" instead of these "twin clickers" , even though this would surely minor the click frequency for 50% . Also need to try a "twin clicker" rigged with the heavier , solid beads on the INSIDE of the cupping as well , and see , whether this would not cause the spoon to flip over instantly instead of wobble ? I'd much prefer an "inside cupping clicker" , so that I could still apply reflective stick-on foil to the outside of the spoon , which would otherwise surely kill all of the clicking noise , if "outside cupping clickers" would hit it ,....... it definately requires metal on metal ! Wish me luck:wink: , .........greetz , diemai:yay:

@ dfp11354 Guess , that it would be almost impossible finding blanks , that exactly meet your demands , .... apart from having them custom made by a wood turner . But what you could try is to obtain blanks like these ones listed and cut/grind an approx. 45

@ MattDean Yes ,.... I have also found out , that completely rounding off back and belly of a flat-bodied glider makes a big difference to the gliding performance rather than just breaking the edges . greetz , diemai:yay: